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JULY 2010
What attractive intranets look like
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The winds of change are blowing for intranets. Every intranet survey run in the wider
community has shown that 50% of intranet
teams are planning (or hoping) to redesign
their sites.
With any redesign comes the opportunity for
a fresh new look and feel. Drawing their inspiration from the best of public-facing sites,
intranets are shrugging off their dated appearance and joining the modern age.
These design improvements matter. As discussed in the earlier article Should the intranet look sexy?, intranet sites don’t have a
marketing role, but they do need to have a
professional and engaging appearance.
Fundamentally, this is about trust. Staff
need have confidence that the intranet will
provide them with accurate and up-to-date
information. An old, ugly and dated site
sends the opposite message, that the intranet
is uncared for and under-resourced.
Intranets can’t afford to be
useful but ugly
Attractive and useful
Intranets must be useful, for staff and for the
organisation as a whole. They need to help
staff find the information they need and
complete tasks. They should streamline
business processes, save money, and increase customer satisfaction.
While these must be the top priorities for intranet teams, intranets cannot afford to be
useful but ugly.
Because they are not customer facing, many
intranets have had little attention or love.
Too many sites have designs that date back a
decade or more, and look awful compared to
even average-looking public-facing sites.
There is an also an emotional element to intranet design. Intranets should reflect the
cultures of the organisations they serve, and
can also help to drive cultural change.
Intranets should be professional, attractive
and engaging in appearance. The screenshots included later in this article provide
some examples as inspiration.
At a basic level, intranets need to have a
clear brand and identity of their own, distinct from the public-facing site and providing continuity as the organisation evolves
and restructures.
But the question still needs to be asked:
what does attractive mean when it comes to
intranets?
As intranets are hidden within organisations, it is hard to know what good intranet
design looks like. This article shares a few
examples from across the globe, not as definitive ‘right’ designs, but as inspiration for
other teams to follow. While very different
in their design approaches, all the showcased intranets have elements to learn from.
The design of intranets should reflect current practices on the broader public-facing
internet. At a minimum, this means intranets should at least match the appearance of
current corporate and government public
websites.
James Robertson is the managing
director of Step Two Designs, an
intranet and content management
consultancy based in Sydney,
Australia. James specialises in intranet strategy, web content management, information architecture
and usability.
Modern design
Intranets can also benefit from taking elements from more leading edge designs, such
as ‘web 2.0’ sites, and the designs that have
followed on from this.
This doesn’t mean that intranets should follow the latest fads and fashions of the web.
Intranets are not leading e-commerce sites,
or marketing sites promoting the latest consumer gadgets. It makes no sense to model
intranets on the latest designs produced by
the world’s largest web properties.
© Copyright 2010, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au
intranets • usability • information architecture • knowledge management • content management
There is, however, a reasonably clear sense
of what ‘modern design’ means on the web at
any given point, and intranets should benchmark themselves against this.
eration for intranets. With careful planning
up front, and the use of modern web practices, it should not be difficult to deliver a design that meets accessibility standards.
Clean and simple
(For more on this, see the earlier article Accessibility tips for website construction.)
As discussed earlier, intranets are fundamentally a utilitarian tool: they are designed
to help staff get their work done.
Make new designs a priority?
Intranet design should therefore be clean
and simple. The highly designed (over-designed?) nature of marketing sites isn’t appropriate on intranets. Use of interactive
elements, such as Flash animations, should
be used sparingly.
Depending on the technology used to publish the intranet, the ability to create radical
designs may be limited. As some of the examples show, however, even small design
elements within basic page templates can
have a large impact.
Branding and emotion
A good intranet design has a strong emotional element. This should reflect the organisation’s culture, branding and identity.
With many organisations focusing on staff
retention and ‘being a great place to work’,
this should also be reflected in an intranet
that is a joy to look at and use.
The intranet brand and identity should be a
stable element in the organisation, giving
staff continuity through restructures and
other painful changes.
Accessibility and web standards
Modern web practices deliver an attractive
appearance through the use of cascading
style sheets (CSS) and semantic markup.
This gives the best of both worlds: a professional design combined with great crossbrowser and cross-device compatibility. It
also allows the design of the intranet to be
quickly adjusted and improved without having to change back-end coding or CMS configuration.
Accessibility, where sites are designed for
those with disabilities, is also a key consid-
For all the desirability of the designs showcased in this article, should refreshing the
appearance of the intranet be an overriding
priority? In short, no.
There is little value in spending significant
effort developing new pages designs and
templates, if the rest of the site isn’t being
improved. At worst, staff can perceive this as
‘lipstick on a pig’, where the site looks different but still works poorly.
New site design should be combined with
broader and more significant changes,
whether it’s a complete site rework or incremental improvements to key functionality.
Time marches on
There is always the danger when sharing
screenshots that they will date. This is unavoidable, and no doubt readers of this article
in several years will mock these ‘great’ designs.
The purpose of sharing these screenshots is
not to outline an absolute ‘best’, but rather to
encourage intranet teams to deliver sites that
both work better and look better. Look to the
current crop of websites to find inspiration
for modern design practices.
Conclusion
Intranets that are dated and ugly discourage
staff use, and reduce trust. While an attractive intranet is far from the highest priority,
teams should always make the most of opportunities to deliver a new site design.
Draw on the best that the web has to offer, as
well as modern design practices, to deliver
an intranet that is emotionally engaging, engenders trust, and says ‘this is a site that you
want to use’.
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What attractive intranets look like • Page 2
© Copyright 2010, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au
Recently redeveloped, this financial services intranet draws inspiration from newspaper websites and
web 2.0 applications. Screenshot courtesy of AMP.
What attractive intranets look like • Page 3
© Copyright 2010, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au
While each individual element is very simple in its design, the intranet as a whole reflects the
innovative nature of the organisation it serves. Screenshot courtesy of IDEO.
What attractive intranets look like • Page 4
© Copyright 2010, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au
Intranets can draw inspiration from public-facing websites, to combine useful tools with a strong
internal brand. Screenshot courtesy of Arrow Energy.
Very simple design elements can give the intranet a strong brand and identity. Screenshot courtesy
of Audit Office NSW.
What attractive intranets look like • Page 5
© Copyright 2010, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au
With relatively small changes from the standard templates provided by the underlying technology,
this design has a big visual and emotional impact. Screenshot courtesy of Bupa Australia.
What attractive intranets look like • Page 6
© Copyright 2010, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au
This design finds a good balance between the company’s strong corporate branding and a clean,
simple layout. Screenshot courtesy of Kiwibank.
What attractive intranets look like • Page 7
© Copyright 2010, Step Two Designs Pty Ltd • www.steptwo.com.au